Nn City Council Is Considering Building A New Juvenile Center

Expansion Of Current Location Other Option

Newport News has changed direction on the best way to house the increasing number of juvenile offenders.

In November, City Council agreed with staff that an expansion of the existing juvenile detention center was the best plan.

Now, staff is recommending a new center, and the Council has given the go-ahead to explore that option.

The current center, next to City Hall downtown, was designed to hold 40, but sometimes as many as 115 youths are there.

City Manager Ed Maroney says it will cost the city less to build a new center than it will to expand the old one. The trade-off is lost taxes from the potential private development of the site.

Both options were originally expected to cost about the same - $11.5 million. But the state would probably contribute more dollars to a new building. Also, the costs of new leases that would have to be negotiated in relation to an expansion were not calculated before.

A 350- to 400-space parking garage would also be built on the site of the new center, helping to solve the city-employee parking problem downtown.

The expansion would have given the juvenile detention center 108 beds, with the possibility for more expansion.

Building a new center on city-owned property - 4.2 acres between an Interstate 664 ramp and 25th Street, between Huntington Avenue and Warwick Boulevard - has one drawback:

If the city builds something there, private business or industry can't develop the site. The city's planning department studied the potential of the site and reported to the Council that the land might sell for between $360,000 and $500,000.

An 80,000-square-foot office building could generate yearly between $150,000 and $250,000 in real estate, personal property and business license taxes. It could also create as many as 200 jobs.

The drawback to expansion is what to do with the kids at the center while the work is under way.

The center is already severely crowded, so juveniles may have to be placed elsewhere during the demolition and construction that goes with expansion, according to the report. If a new center is built, they can stay in the old one while the new one is being built.

If as many as 26 juveniles have to be placed elsewhere during expansion, the cost could be as much as $1.8 million to lease space to house them, according to a report by city staff.

Jeff Long can be reached at 247-4760 or by e-mail at jlong@dailypress.com